


Say the Name

by mos



Category: The 100 (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-28
Updated: 2015-04-28
Packaged: 2018-03-26 04:03:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3836308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mos/pseuds/mos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One-shot of Abby and Marcus held captive/tortured by the ice queen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Say the Name

_Abby._

The name was on the tip of his tongue, but even as the Ice Nation's queen cut another precise, agonizing line across the underside of his upper arm, he wouldn't say it. He couldn't say it. No, he wouldn't even look at her, tied to a post in the circle with the rest of their captured people. He would give them nothing. No, he would give them anything. Anything but her name.

"Tell me the name of the one you love most," the ice queen commanded again. His blood dripped from her blade onto the frozen ground. His throat was raw from the screams she'd wrenched from him.

He felt Abby's eyes on his, pleading, heard her sobs.

He wouldn't allow them to put her through this. He wouldn't watch her die.

He wouldn't say her name.

The ice queen drew another line across his other arm. Was it the tenth? Eleventh? He had lost track, the pain sending his mind into a tailspin, the spiral focusing on one thought: to not give them the thing they wanted, because they'd take her and torture her, too.

The ice queen paced in front of him, eyes steady on his, looking into his soul.

"It is a woman," she stated, as if she could see his spiralling thoughts there in his eyes. "It is always a woman. Say her name."

"It's not a woman," he tried, but the pain made him a terrible liar. The barest hint of a smile flickered at one corner of the ice queen's mouth, and the stepped forward, knife raised, coming to rest over his left eye.

"Say her name," she said, "or I will slit your eyelids."

The terror flooded his body as the knife pressed into his flesh. A bead of blood ran down and caught in his eyelash. But he wouldn't say it, wouldn't-

"Abigail!"

Her voice rang out through the circle, strong and firm. The knife withdrew as the ice queen turned slowly to face the one who had spoken. Abby's face was defiant, and Marcus formed a million words at once telling her to stop speaking, to pretend to lie, to shut up, anything for God's sake-

But Abby spoke again.

"Her name is Abigail," she said, and her eyes flicked to his. The ice queen strode towards her with his blood still dripping from the blade. Abby's body was yet untouched, and all at once he could hear her screaming, just like he had when she was on the table in the mountain. He was just as helpless now, and this time nobody was coming to save them, and he would watch a thousand cuts appear on the body of the woman he loved.

Marcus wanted to die.

* * *

_Say my name!_

She wanted to scream it at him, shout it until it echoed through the forest and into the mountains. Instead she watched the ice queen cut the man who loved her, watched him scream in agony again.

He'd never said he loved her. It was something she intuitively knew, never spoken between them. He'd loved her on the Ark and he'd loved her as they fell to the ground, and he'd loved her through every step she'd taken, in every bog and mossy forest floor and shoreline on Earth. It was in his eyes every time they looked at her, and in his body every time he walked beside her or stepped closer to protect her.

And he wasn't going to say her name.

Silently, she screamed for him to say it, and a sob escaped. She was going to watch him die in front of her, and for a moment she wanted to shout at him for being so selfish, for making her watch it. And then her heart fell all over again, because he would die here in front of her, and his screams would haunt her until the end of her days, and she'd never forgive herself for all the wasted time and all the moments when she could have told him she loved him, too, and didn't.

The ice queen's knife pressed into the skin above Marcus's eye, and she choked on a cry. _Not his eyes_. She couldn't stand the thought of never seeing his eyes again, never speaking to him silently through them. No. She wouldn't allow it to happen.

"Abigail!" the cry tore from her throat and a mix of triumph and terror flooded her body. "Her name is Abigail."

The ice queen came towards her, and Marcus's eyes screamed at her to stop, though it was already too late. All she'd wanted was to not have to watch him die, but this was worse, much worse, because she was going to make him watch her die instead. Her eyes met his, and she silently swore to herself that they were going to be the last thing she saw. Everything inside her was crashing down, the terror falling upon her like rain.

She could have said it anytime, but the words had stayed trapped behind her lips. _I love you_. All it would have taken was a moment, a few quick, whispered words, but she'd never said it. She couldn't even say it now.

The ice queen paced in front of her, knife coated in blood. All at once she halted, tipping her head just a little before stepping forward, knife poised to make the first cut on Abby's arm. She braced herself for the agony, prayed she was strong enough to withstand it.

"Tell me the name of the one you love most," the ice queen commanded, even as she made the request, her eyes boring into Abby's, reading her thoughts. The ice queen knew that the name in Abby's mind was not Marcus.

And suddenly Abby wondered if the name could save them. Maybe... maybe.

"Say the name." The ice queen stepped forward, her knife pressing into the flesh of Abby's arm. Abby's eyes met Marcus's again, his silently pleading with her. There was no way to undo this now, though, no way to turn back time and not trek north, to stay safely at Camp Jaha.

Unless... it was a gamble. The name could save them, or it could condemn them, and her, too.

Abby met the ice queen's eyes and silently prayed that she was doing the right thing. "Clarke," she said, parying that the queen couldn't hear the tremble in her voice. "Ai yongon, Klark kom Skaikru."

There was a heartbeat of silence. Two. Abruptly, the knife withdrew from Abby's skin and the ice queen was turning away, barking orders for them to be cut down, for them to be fed and given shelter and blankets and anything they wanted. A warrior cut Abby's hands from the post, and she winced as her arms fell, the muscles stiff after having been there for so long.

And then Marcus was dashing towards her, still bleeding from the cuts on his arms but wrapping them around her anyway. She sunk into his embrace, locking her arms around him, burying her face in his shoulder and taking a deep breath of his scent. It was mixed with the coppery tang of blood.

"Abby." He drew back and cupped her face. She wondered if he knew that his hands were shaking and there were tears in his eyes. "How did you know?"

"I've always known." Even in his darkest time, she'd known that she was the only thing in his heart. He still didn't know that she loved him, too, but he would. He would.

"What happened?" he asked. The others were rubbing their wrists and warily eyeing the grounders that were now so intent on making reparations.

"A gamble," she replied. "They like power, and they've heard the stories."

The ice queen was approaching them again, knife still in hand, but sheathed now.

"Clarke," Marcus said quietly. "You're the easiest way to that alliance."

"Abigail and Marcus of the Sky People," the ice queen said, coming to a stop in front of them. She held out the sheathed knife with both hands and offered it to them. "I offer you the blade that tortured you. My pain is yours. My village is yours. Ask anything and you shall have it."

"A moment, please," Abby said. The ice queen nodded and withdrew.

Abby flung her arms around Marcus, and he enveloped her in his embrace again, where she was warm and safe. Opening her mouth, she let the words finally tumble forth, because she didn't know when they'd get another quick, quiet moment like this. Maybe never. Once the words came, they came again, and again.

"I love you," she said, over and over. "I love you. I love you."

And her mind registered his own confession, hushed and breathless. "I love you too."


End file.
